Stimulus-responsive assembly of nonviral nucleocapsids

Mao Hori, Angela Steinauer, Stephan Tetter, Jamiro Hälg, Eva-Maria Manz and Donald Hilvert ()
Additional contact information
Mao Hori: ETH Zürich
Angela Steinauer: ETH Zürich
Stephan Tetter: ETH Zürich
Jamiro Hälg: ETH Zürich
Eva-Maria Manz: ETH Zürich
Donald Hilvert: ETH Zürich

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Controlled assembly of a protein shell around a viral genome is a key step in the life cycle of many viruses. Here we report a strategy for regulating the co-assembly of nonviral proteins and nucleic acids into highly ordered nucleocapsids in vitro. By fusing maltose binding protein to the subunits of NC-4, an engineered protein cage that encapsulates its own encoding mRNA, we successfully blocked spontaneous capsid assembly, allowing isolation of the individual monomers in soluble form. To initiate RNA-templated nucleocapsid formation, the steric block can be simply removed by selective proteolysis. Analyses by transmission and cryo-electron microscopy confirmed that the resulting assemblies are structurally identical to their RNA-containing counterparts produced in vivo. Enzymatically triggered cage formation broadens the range of RNA molecules that can be encapsulated by NC-4, provides unique opportunities to study the co-assembly of capsid and cargo, and could be useful for studying other nonviral and viral assemblies.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47808-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47808-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47808-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().